Many people are known to enjoy drawing, sketching, and doodling. In particular, young children are known to be fond of doodling and drawing pictures. Allowing a young child to draw has several benefits. First, drawing may provide an outlet for the child to be creative and imaginative. Second, young children are extremely active. When a child is given writing materials, he may occupy himself for as long as several hours. Such activity is safe, inexpensive, and does not require keen attention of a supervising adult. Third, children are often able to communicate more readily through pictures than through words. Thus, an examination of the child's drawings may help an adult to understand the thoughts of the child more easily than through verbal communication.
A writing system may be said to comprise a writing utensil, a writing surface, and, optionally, an eraser. Elements of a writing system other than the writing surface, i.e., the writing utensil and eraser, may be referred to as writing implements. Of course, many writing systems are commonly available to children. The most commonly available writing surface is paper. Paper may be white, cream-colored, or any number of other colors, and is available both in free sheet form and as a pad, pads being preferred. When the paper is provided in the form of a pad, a child may write on the uppermost sheet of the pad, then remove this top sheet to continue drawing on the sheet below. The top sheet may be discarded or preserved for display or other use. Paper is relatively inexpensive, and amenable to be written upon by a wide assortment of writing utensils, such as crayons, markers, pens, pencils, paint sticks, and the like.
Further, many of the writing utensils suitable for use on paper allow for erasable writing. For example, pencil graphite and certain pen inks are readily erasable from most types of paper. As an eraser, a knob made of rubber or a similar material may be used.
Another widely known writing surface is a chalkboard. Chalkboards were traditionally made of slate, but today are more commonly green or black composite boards or even a plasticized polyvinyl chloride film. A chalkboard erodes chalk drawn across it and retains lightly embedded particles of embedded chalk to form a mark. White or yellow chalk is the most commonly used chalk, although colored chalks are also known.
Chalkboards have the advantage of being easily erasable with a cloth or eraser. When a full cleaning is desired, a chalkboard may be cleaned with plain water, without resort to chemical cleaners. Further advantages of chalk are that it is inexpensive, can be nontoxic, and does not have an unpleasant odor.
A third commonly known writing surface is a whiteboard. A whiteboard may be a melamine, porcelain, or enamel resin layer affixed to a substrate. Such whiteboards are characterized in that they have hard, white surfaces that are very smooth in appearance, and are essentially nonporous. In such boards, some cracks and pores are sometimes observed upon microscopic inspection.
Alternately, a whiteboard may comprise a sheet of polymeric film such as an acrylic or UV curable resin. This second type of whiteboard is characterized by having a surface of low porosity, preferably less than about 250 cc/(mm.sup.2 .multidot.mm), 24h as measured by ASTM procedure D1434. Suitable polymeric materials include polyethylenes, polypropylenes, polyvinyl chlorides, polyesters, polyethers, polyvinylacetates, polystyrenes, cellulosics such as ethyl cellulose and cellulose acetates, and the like. As a writing utensil for use on either type of whiteboard, whiteboard markers are commonly used.
Whiteboards have several advantages. First, the markers used to write on whiteboards are comfortable, easy to use, and are available in many bright colors which are appealing to children. Second, whiteboards are easily erasable with a cloth or felt eraser. Third, whiteboards provide a white background for the child's drawings, thus making them easy for the child and others to see.
A fourth commonly available writing surface is a wipeable crayon surface. Such surfaces are commonly available and characterized as having a smooth appearance and a hard, white, nonporous surface. Wipeable crayon surfaces may be written on with crayons and easily cleaned with a cloth. One such surface comprises a plasticized polyvinyl chloride film.
Crayons are available in a vide variety of colors which are attractive and appealing to children. Further, many crayons are nontoxic and void of any unpleasant odor. Moreover, it has been observed that children particularly enjoy the texture and feel of crayons when drawing.
A fifth commonly available writing surface is an erasable adhesion writing surface. Erasable adhesion writing surfaces are characterized by having two layers. The first layer is a translucent upper layer which is typically made from a plastic film. The second layer is a rigid substrate. In one embodiment, the first layer has a light color, such as white or light grey, in which case the second layer has a dark color, such as black or dark blue. Alternately, the substrate can be a bright color, such as white, and the translucent upper layer a darker color, such as red or green. The first layer is positioned over the second layer, and the layers are affixed to each other along one of the edges. The first and second layer are of such materials so that the two layers may be caused to adhere to each other upon application of a slight pressure.
In operation, the user utilizes a blunt writing stylus to write or draw on the first layer. This presses the first layer against the second layer, and causes the first layer to adhere to the second layer. Consequently, the areas where the first layer adheres to the second layer become either dark against a bright background or light against a dark background, allowing the writing or image to be formed. The user may erase the image thus formed by separating the first layer from the second layer to remove the adhesion between the two layers.
Erasable adhesion writing surfaces have the advantages of being nontoxic and odor-free. Further, because the erasable adhesion writing surface allows the child to create a drawing that is entirely contained within the writing media, a child using an erasable adhesion writing surface will not write on walls and other inappropriate areas. Moreover, because such surfaces are easily erasable, they maintain the interest of the user for an extended period of time.
Although all of the aforementioned writing systems have their unique advantages, there are a number of drawbacks inherent in each of the foregoing writing systems. Perhaps the most significant is the clutter associated with children when they draw or doodle. Especially where markers, pens, crayons, paint sticks, or chalk is concerned, children are known to scatter these writing utensils about the room, where they may be lost or damaged, or may inadvertently mark walls, carpeting, or furniture. A related problem is the storage of the writing utensils. Where the utensils are stored separately from the writing surface, there is an increased possibility that either the writing surface or one or more of the writing utensils will be lost.
Secondly, children have a limited attention span. Although they enjoy doodling and drawing, they may become bored when using one writing system exclusively. This may lead to a child's writing on walls, furniture, or other inappropriate locations. Further, the child may eventually abandon the drawing exercise altogether, opting instead to engage in another activity that may be more dangerous or more expensive, or one that requires closer adult attention.
Third, not all of the commonly available writing systems are readily moveable. Both the writing surface and writing utensils must be packed away. This task is often a complex one for a child to master. Thus, the child may lose either the writing surface or one or more writing utensils.
Fourth, not all of the widely available writing systems are portable. "Portable" is the amenability of the writing system to be used while travelling, for example, in the back seat of an automobile. Such portability is a desirable feature in a writing system, for example, for use during long automobile, plane, or train trips.